View from my Office.

I thought this was Mason Lake, near Shelton WA, but on double checking the map, it's an inlet from Puget Sound.  It was a beautifully clear day today, although a tiny bit overcast, but no wind.  The reflections on the water were gorgeous.

Usually the view from my office is of the street in front of the house - and nothing much happens out there.  The mailman, the kids coming home from school, cars coming into the cul-de-sac and just turning around (what are they looking for - houses for sale?  houses to break into?  they're lost?) but not much else.  There's the ginger cat who's developed a limp recently.  The occasional raccoon and lots of crows and one time there was a male and female mallard duck waddling up the road, which is slightly odd, as we don't have a pond nearby.  That's about it.

Today, my office was the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  I had to drive down to Shelton to drop something off at a house and thoroughly enjoyed the views out of the car window.  Clear water, trees turning their autumnal colours, mountains, deer - the only thing that would have been better is if there was snow on the Olympic Mountains.  Mother Nature, if you're listening, don't worry ... I don't want to see snow too soon!  This liquid rain we're getting this afternoon is as far as I'd like to go for now!

Tomorrow, it's back to the computer.

Fifty Shades of Blue

This blue door - which is the door to our shed - always reminds me of the colours of Greece.  I think it's the land of blue.  Look at a picture of the Greek islands, and this blue turns up there - often on window shutters.  It's not green enough to be a turquoise, but it's more than a light blue.  I thought maybe it was azure, so looked up the word on the internet, and Wikipedia shows us this - 

Azure (color) - a hue of blue

Azure (heraldry) - a blue color on flags or coats of arms

Azure (song) - a composition by Duke Ellington

Azure (magazine) - a periodical on Jewish thought and identity

Azure (design magazine) - a periodical on architecture and design

Azure, Alberta

Azure, Montana

Azure (building) - a structure in Dallas, Texas

Bentley Azure - a car

Lapis Lazuli - a precious stone

Azure Window - a natural arch

Windows Azure - a cloud computing platform created by Microsoft

I had no idea that the word meant anything other than a blue colour.  Apparently it's defined as a light purplish blue, so that's not it.  Do you remember Prussian Blue?  That was in my Windsor and Newton watercolors when I was a child - I've no idea if it's still in the palette now.

Just looking up the word "blue" on the internet brings up some fascinating names for the colour - Eton blue, Bondi, Palatinate, and Phthalo blue.  THIS is why I haven't really dipped into Pinterest because it would just suck me in with all those amazing images and graphics, and I know I'd look up one day and it would be a week next Tuesday.  Just spending time today looking up the colour blue, was a wonderful journey but I really need to get on and do some real work.  When I win the lottery, I'm going to allow myself to sign up to Pinterest and dive in ...

What's the Plural of Conundrum?

Today's photo shows my solution to one of life's other conundrums - brown vs white, as in rice or pasta.  I love brown rice and wholewheat pasta, my husband is a white rice, white pasta guy all the way.  I haven't solved the pasta puzzle yet (though I do have a lead on that) but I have solved it for the rice.  In a shop that sells Japanese Bento Box accessories, I found some triangular rice shapers in two different sizes.  I think you're supposed to do something exotic with them like cut out Hello Kitty's face from seaweed or something and arrange them artfully on the rice.

I just got as far as stage one - shaping the rice.  I make up a whole batch of white and brown rice (separately of course) and I upturn each triangular rice shape onto a small tray covered with wax paper and freeze them.  After that , they all go into a ziploc bag and voila - instant and perfectly portioned rice to please every palate.  To reheat, just add a few drops of water and microwave for a minute to two.

Now I have to figure out how to do the same with pasta ...